A Drop in the Ocean

Just as musical notes have their primary note and then a host of exquisitely subtle and beautiful overtones, the complex instrument of your human body has its physical structure and a host of subtler harmonic dimensions along a seemingly infinite spectrum of energies and frequencies. While novice musicians may not have developed the refined attention necessary to consciously hear, appreciate, and produce such exquisite tones, or may even lack the faith that they even exist, truly great musicians are able to not only hear such harmonic overtones, but to fine-tune their instrument to produce sublimely sweet music using such tones. The same is true for the subtle energies within and around us. We may not yet be able to sense them, but they are there and as we learn to tune into them, we are naturally better equipped to live a more beautiful, balanced, and creative life.

Practice

Sitting quietly and comfortably now, allow the breath to freely come and flow, effortlessly releasing and dissolving thoughts and tensions into space. As you inhale, imagine a bubble of light filling you from within. As you exhale, imagine this bubble expanding and opening out into the space around you. With each in-breath, be filled by this luminous energy, and with each exhalation, imagine this sphere of light opening and expanding, moving freely through the space, the walls, the buildings, the earth around you. Let everything open. Let your small sense of self expand and open to your surroundings. Allow all of the feelings, sensations, and vibrations within your body to expand, open, and dissolve like a cloud melting into space.

Use the breath to extend your sphere of energy awareness like the radiating circle of a pebble dropped into a still pool....Ahhh.... Opening in all directions.... Filling the space above you.... Filling the space below you.... Expanding and opening out before you.... Behind you.... Opening and expanding as a sphere of energy life awareness all around you.... Opening and expanding with each breath....Now as you inhale, allow this light energy to take on a pleasing color and a pleasant feeling quality—perhaps blue and peaceful, or red and warm, or any combination that feels right to you.

As you inhale, allow this feeling and color to fill you deeply and as you exhale, allow this colorful, “feelingful” sphere to open and expand within and around you. Imagine flooding the space around you with radiant waves of warmth and well-being. Imagine generating an atmosphere of peace, balance, and harmony that pervades the world around you. Sitting quietly, simply allow this wellspring of inner energy to rise within you and to open and expand so that everyone around is bathed in this light.

Now, having established this expansive sense of well-being, imagine that as your sphere of energy awareness opens, there is an echo from the universe at large. Imagine that as your nucleus of energy expands outward, a vast ocean of peace, or warmth, or love converges and pours itself into you. Sense the incredible feeling of balance that emerges as you simultaneously experience this expansion and convergence—your tiny mind-drop opening outward, dissolving into a vast spacious ocean, and this ocean of positive energy vibration flowing and converging into your drop. Allow all of your limitations, pains, thoughts, and cares to be dissolved into this free-flowing convergence, resting in wholeness, connected and belonging to the world.